Public cordially invited to ‘Blood Wedding’

Skidmore Theater presents Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” April 10–11 and April 16–18 at 8 p.m., and April 12 and April 19 at 2 p.m. in the Skidmore College Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS >> “Blood Wedding” brings together a pair of talented directors, poetry and theater, and a dead playwright featuring one of his greatest works. This perfect storm creates a poignant look at human emotions set against the harsh backdrop of war.

It all began this past fall, when Skidmore College theater Professor Carolyn Anderson and Senior Artist in Residence Will Bond co-taught a Directing Practicum class. During the course, students explored the life and work of Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, born in 1898 and executed during the turbulent Spanish Civil War. Lorca, considered one of Spain’s greatest modern poets, also wrote plays and essays, painted and played piano well, and worked as an actor and a theater director. He was killed at age 38, likely for a combination of his outspoken socialist views and his homosexuality. His grave has never been found.

So for audiences, seeing the character of Lorca, played by sophomore Shea Leavis, wandering ghostlike through the production of his own play makes “Blood Wedding” even more fascinating.

In the play’s program, Anderson and Bond wrote, “[Our students’] smart and wild investigations of the world of Lorca and his life led us to dream of a production that could include this research. We wanted to place the play in the context of the war in Spain.”

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After contacting the play’s publishers for permission, the directors kept the original play as the core of their production and then built a collaborative devised framework that surrounds “Blood Wedding.” Within that framework, radio announcements about the war blare through static, flamenco music sets the characters dancing, and Lorca recites his own poetry and reenacts his own death.

“When you hear Lorca speak his first poem aloud, it helps you watch the play at the center of the production,” Bond said. “I wonder sometimes if the public has the ears to listen to the original play on its own. Our framework gives such context.”

Within the original play, the Mother, played by senior Hallie Christine, has lost her husband, one son and perhaps her sanity after their deaths. She prepares to release her other son, the Bridegroom, played by senior Patrick Stanny, to marriage. The Bride, played by senior Alex Chernin, is of two minds about this marriage, since she still loves her former fiancee, Leonardo, the only character with a name, played by senior Henry Hetz. As relations among the families grow ever more strained, the wedding becomes unstrung under the watchful eyes of the Moon and Death. The action runs for 90 minutes, a three-act Greek tragedy with no intermissions.

“We wanted to keep the story going, and keep that sense of intensity and urgency,” Anderson said.

Christine said the show had been a truly collaborative experience for everyone involved.

“The performers are actively crafting the world of the play along with our directors,” she said. “Our collective ideas, dreams and visions about Lorca’s strange, dark world have created this unique piece.”

That strange, dark world becomes both the physical Spanish landscape of the time and the timeless world within each person’s mind.

“One of our actors said, ‘The thing about this play is that you don’t know where you are,’” Bond said. “‘It’s like a spell. Rather than helping you understand what’s happening, it just unravels.’”

The two directors worked well together on the production, they said.

“We proceeded with two heads, but one voice, so the students would understand our direction,” Anderson said.

Daniella Deutsch, the sophomore who plays Death and the Beggar Woman, said she appreciated how trusting the directors had been of the bold choices the student actors had played around with.

“This process has taught me so much about pushing myself to discover possibilities completely outside of the box, and to trust the choices and each other wholeheartedly,” she said.

See “Blood Wedding” April 10–11 and April 16–18 at 8 p.m., and April 12 and April 19 at 2 p.m. in the Skidmore College Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater. General admission is $12; students, the Skidmore community and senior citizens pay $8. Call the Skidmore Theater Box Office at 580-5439 or visit www.skidmore.edu/academics/theater/.